so alcohol really does damage the brain.
There is of course an exact correlation between propensity to vote Labour and many other types of stupid behaviour. Putting your children on a cancer bed, for example, is largely confined to Labour constituencies.
Over 250,000 children may be risking their health by using sunbeds, giving in to peer pressure in search of a tan according to two new surveys.
They show that those living in the north of England, in places such as Liverpool and Sunderland, are frequent users and are particularly at risk.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/uk/sunbed+children+put+health+at+risk/3421997
Children must be banned from sunbeds by law, and parents prosecuted. We can’t similarly outlaw Labour, as stupid people are entitled to their view.
A turnout of 32.2%. Reflecting the “If voting changed anything they’d make it illegal” cynicism which lies in the enclaves of despair. Want to argue about that, sonny?
Although there are those in Scotland and elsewhere who, despite the evidence to the contrary, still suffer from the delusion that the Labour Party still shares the vision: “That Man to Man, the world o’er, Shall brothers be for a’ that.”
Pass the Red Biddy.
Any complaints of vote fraud, yet?
Like the issue of Global Warming, the real science is far from settled. To link the use of sun beds to cancer in children in poor Labour constituncies is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read.
You are 12 years old and your parents are skint. They’ve just got their dole, and you say Mum – can I have a fiver to get another blast of radiation on a sunbed? Are you being serious – or taking the piss?
Sure too much exposure to the sun – or to sun beds can cause skin cancer which can kill you.
However, there is a great deal of evidence, that a major cause of all disease, is due to a weakened immune system, part of which is due to Vitamin D deficiency.
One of the main sources of vitamin D results from exposure to sunlight. If you live in a place like Glasgow or Manchester where it is pissing down most of the time, occasional brief exposure on a sun bed, is highly likely to reduce your risk of cancer, rather than increase it.
Tony
Are you being serious – or taking the piss?
Obviously that is less obvious than I had hoped!
Tony opmoc – sorry ignore last comment, meant to be from me thus
” Are you being serious – or taking the piss? ”
Obviously that is less obvious than I had hoped!
What did Labour do to persuade voters back? Or how did the SNP fail?
“so alcohol really does damage the brain”
Absolutely, every single measure you knock back destroys a few hundred brain cells. 🙂
Tony,
I’ve just been diagnosed with a pre-cancerous skin lesion on my face. In Dublin, of all places. I’d prefer to get my Vitamin D in a capsule from the chemist. I’ve never used a sun bed.
As for “Labour hold Glasgow NE”, that’s way too depressing to think about until later in the day. I’m an evening person.
“so alcohol really does damage the brain”
Brillant, as usual.
There is something moving in the blind stupidity with which the British working class cling on to Labour. It’s like the faith that can move mountains, even when it doesn’t.
It’s still “our” party, even though it isn’t. Like Liverpool or Man United FC. It’s still “our” club, even though the actual money is being skimmed off in wheelbarrowloads and shipped across the Atlantic.
I posted this on Socialist Unity:
Didn’t vote 40,000
Labour 12,000
Everybody else 8,000
That means that 87% of people in this overwhelmingly working class constituency sent a big loud & clear message to Brown, Mandelson and Labour’s election strategists saying “Please take the working class for granted. Please do anything you want, no matter how outrageous, we will always either vote for you or not at all. You have been right the whole time these last 20 years, it’s only the Mondeo man Labour/Tory swing voter that matters. Don’t worry about us.”
To me a slightly pathetic last message from a constituency that will be rubbed out as one of the first acts of a Cameron government. Cameron will be looking at this result and thinking, fuck me, I could get three terms from more results like this, and those dumb Jocks won’t even quit the union.
Nice typo, there, Tony, or is it a display of ignorance mixed with arrogance?
It should have read “Unlike the issue of Global Warming”…
But then again, the evidence strongly suggests that sunbeds should only be used under strict medical supervision.
Phil
Tony: sunbeds are no good for synthesising vitamin D. For that you need real sunlight. The weakening of our immune systems has been attributed to the use of sun-blocking creams. We should give our skin a good 20 minutes of raw sunlight before applying sun-block.
High-dose vitamin D3 tabs are great in the winter and will probably do more to prevent swine flu than any dodgy vaccine.
Abe
Here is a link to a NHS document which might help explain why the SNP failed in Glasgow North-East:
http://library.nhsggc.org.uk/mediaAssets/library/nhsgg_pcd_mhs_north-east_annual_report_2003-04.pdf
(scroll to page 5)
There simply isn’t enough Scots living there!
There’s actually a scientific back-story to this.
Labour’s (frankly unsurprising) win in Glesga North-East validates a long-held political hypothesis.
Dungeekin
Bill
Thanks for the reference. The graphic on page 5 tells us what proportion of each ethnic group of Glasgow’s population lives in the NE, and the white Scots, at 40% seem fairly typical. So the graph does not suggest that the proportion of native Scots in Glasgow NE are abnormally low. Maybe it’s just been a ‘safe’ Labour seat for generations, and what happened last year was just a protest vote for the SNP. The question is still, how did the SNP blunder by not capitalising on it?
When the Scottish Socialist Party became an electoral threat, they fell into a very obvious trap and imploded.
I share Craig’s dismay at the general political de-activation of the British working class. However, I don’t think it’s right to insult people as being stupid and to fling stereotypes around. So many people did not vote, partly because they’re not stupid. Going on about sun-beds is just facile and pejorative. There are lots of very intelligent people in that part of Glasgow. They’ve just been treated like shit for too long, given no fucking hope. Which of the main parties, really, would be of any use to them? Yeah, Labour is the Establishment in Glasgow, with all the corruption that entails. I know all about that. I have no illusions. One saving grace: At least the fucking BNP didn’t get in! Though they are marching (The English/ Scottish Defence League) tomorrow (Sat) in Glasgow and there’s a counter-demo – supporetd by all other parties and many other organisations and individuals – at Glasgow Green.
@Phil – unfortunately, tony_opmoc’s input here regularly contains climate change denial. Often it is in the vein of “if you’re smart, you’ll see that powerful governments are hoodwinking you”, whilst blindly ignoring (a) climate scientists and (b) the fact that governments are not as powerful as the corporations who want to continue with short-term, profit making, business as usual for as long as possible.
The idea that infrequent bouts of sun-bed use might reduce cancer should be treated with significant caution unless well-referenced, in my view. Especially if the idea comes from someone who thinks climate change is a scam.
I would just like to point out – that without any of the other considerations and comments…
I did fall in love with a Girl who had two kids – and I spent most of a Year – living with her – Part Time…
Cos if I was there More Than Every Weekend and a Night In The Week…Then She Would Probably Have Lost Her Dole..And The Authorities Would Assume – I Was The Breadwinner Of Her House and Two Kids..
The Poorest People Are The MOST Generous In The World
I Was Losing My Job Too.
She Dressed Me Up – All Suited Up – And Said Tony – Go and Get That Job In London – We Are Being Wasted Here in Buttershaw – Go and Fuck Them – And Find a Girl And Make Your Own Family…
I used To Take Her Kids To See Their Dad…
And I Could Have Written The Script For Shameless Which Was Filmed Right Opposite Where I used to Work in West Gorton, Manchester
So Don’t Try and Tell Me What It Is Like Living On a Council Estate in The North of England
Tony
The main reason Labour won seems to have been that Labour managed to convince voters that they are in opposition in Scotland as the First Minister and Executive in the Scottish Parliament are SNP just now, so the SNP was punished by voters for the recession and unemployment, while in Norwich North, where there’s no devolution, Labour were seen as the party of government and so the Tories won.
(though to be honest none of that makes sense as the Westminster govt still sets spending limites for Holyrood, Holyrood’s powers are very limited – and the Tories have mostly the same policies as Labour, so protesting their policies by voting for more of the same with a different coloured label is pretty daft too)
Bill (Nov 13th, 5:18pm), Abe, Tony and Duncan all make excellent points. The suggestion which you posit is based on a completely inaccurate hypothesis. Glasgow NE is a massive constituency. There are many extremely deprived areas and this is largely where asylum-seekers have been placed. However, the constituency as a whole is overwhelmingly ‘white Scottish’ – as is Glasgow, and Scotland, in fact! If coming from any English metropolitan conurbation, you just have to get on the train and get off at Glasgow Central to realise that. The largest concentrations of BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) as well as East European people is actually on the Southside and, to a much lesser extent, in the cosmopolitan areas around Glasgow University in the West End (which now is part of the Glasgow North constituency) in which also reside many white English people. It is absolute rubbish to attempt to seek an ethnic explanation for the result in Glasgow North-East. Other commentators have already dissected and explicated accurately on the subject. Furthermore, although, traditionally, BME communities (like urban white Glaswegians) tended to vote Labour, in recent times, a sizeable proportion of the former have shifted allegiance to the SNP (the first ever black MSP was a South Asian man; and even (albeit relatively few) to the Conservatives. There are fundamental and crucial differences b/w politically organised nationalists in Scotland and England. Most of the former are Democratic Centrist and anti-colonial; the latter are nakedly Fascist. It is important not to attempt to impose an English urban analysis onto a Scottish city – the dyanmics are quite different.
Btw, on a more general point, I am pleased to say that the Nazis attempting to demonstrate in Glasgow city centre this morning were hugely outnumbered by anti-Fascists and the great Glasgow public, whose main comment seemed to be: “Send ’em back where they came from!” and so the Nazis had to take refuge in The Cambridge Bar, on Cambridge Street, near the Royal School of Art, Music and Drama (RSAMD) and the Alexander Gibson Opera School, drinking away their sorrows! I saw some of them get on the Underground later, stinking of booze and wearing hang-dog expressions. The fact is, in spite of all the problems (‘religious’ Sectarianism being the most prominent in fact), the vast majority of white working class people in Glasgow would rather toss the Nazis into the Irish Sea than allow them oxygen. Well done, Glasgow!!
Correction to the above: The RSAMD is of course the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
So, this morning, I, a person of South Asian origin, was sipping my Americano while sitting among mainly white Scots in an Italian cafe/ restaurant whose management is Arab and whose waiters are East European and Scottish, which is on a street in the ‘Chinese’ area of the city. The shopkeeper two doors along is a pal and neighbour of mine. We held the post-launch party of the Pakistani Film Festival a couple of years ago in another Italian restaurant on the same street. There are problems, of course, largely to do with the economic system. But in essence, as most people know from their own experience, this polyvalency is the reality of Britain today, and it works.